Dr. Denise Herd

UC Berkeley School of Public Health Professor Denise Herd has been awarded $100,000 to study vaccine hesitancy in Black and Latinx communities across California. Her project was one of 31 funded by the California Collaborative for Pandemic Recovery and Readiness Research—or CPR^3—to examine the pandemic’s effect on Californians’ health and well-being.

Dr. Herd will be leading a team of researchers to interview community organizers who successfully provided COVID-19 testing and vaccines to Black, Latinx, and other marginalized groups about their outreach strategies. They will look at how local leaders framed their messaging to promote testing, vaccination, and behaviors that reduce infections within their communities.

“If successful, we believe this study will allow us to create model approaches for improving vaccine acceptance among adults and children who have been hesitant to become vaccinated using current vaccines,” Dr. Herd said. “The results of the study will also be useful for future public health campaigns to promote acceptance of other vaccines as well as to strengthen community ties to public health and medical services.”

CPR³ is a joint effort between UCSF, California Health and Human Services, and the California Department of Public Health to create a research agenda focused on health equity in the aftermath of the pandemic. More than 30 research projects come from teams across all 10 UC campuses and were awarded a collective $6 million in funding. Project proposals were selected on their ability to address gaps in research about how the pandemic affected underserved communities.